View Articles

Perhaps Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath wakes up to a headache these days. Post-Covid complications? More likely it’ll have to do with speculation rife that the Yogi is no longer in the good books of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and that the Uttar Pradesh BJP scene for a while looked like it might witness changes. Blame it on Covid-19 and the bloated bodies floating in the Ganga, say some UP know-all sorts, fellows who keep tabs on the BJP, and the RSS, and talk like they own the ground that’s slipping from under Yogi and Modi’s feet.

While celebration of the seven years of Narendra Modi regime is being observed as a major national event by the RSS and BJP workers in different parts of the country, the BJP rank and file in Bengal have developed a cold feet to the latest central moves and are feeling apprehensive.

Lakshadweep, the group of small islands, located in the Arabian sea towards the South West coast of Kerala shores is the smallest Union Territory in India. Among the 36 Islands in the UT, only 11 are inhabited and the total population is roughly estimated around 75,000. Lakshadweep was known for its beauty and tranquillity. The land and its people never came to the notice of the rest of India as they themselves built a humble and contented life. It was the most peaceful part of India where the crime rate was near to zero.

As the peak of the second wave of the Covid pandemic begins to slowly recede, the havoc wreaked on lakhs of families has been occupying the attention of the whole country. There is widespread dismay and anger at the way the health emergency caught the Modi government unprepared. Its mishandling and unscientific attitude turned it into a catastrophe for the people.

As per the constitutional time table the next election to the Lok Sabha is to be held before June 2024, means at least three years away but dissolution can lead to earlier election. The Prime Minister has the option available without depending on approval by the parliament. A cabinet decision will be binding on the President and probably new incumbent in the office. The storm has been generated in public mind of total failure of the NaMo government on several counts on touchy issues of dealing with the corona virus pandemic, especially in two months of the second strain with the fatality figures touching half a million and more agonizing more than two million families, mostly of the voluble middle class due shortage of oxygen, hospital facilities and shortage of vaccines.

Donald Trump’s approach to Venezuela proved to be singularly unsuccessful. As president he ratcheted up sanctions against Venezuela’s elected government in an attempt to bring about “regime change.” Over Trump’s time in office, sanctions against Venezuela were widened and intensified into a blockade of its commercial and financial business dealings.

Christopher Thorpe, 65, first toured the entire length of the Western Ghats as a 20-year-old backpacker, travelling by bus and train right down to Rameswaram, completely enchanted by the beauty of landscape. However, it was only in 2008 that he started looking at the ancient land as a living laboratory to study its adaptation and evolution. He had come down with members of the British herpetologist society to visit Gerry Martin’s fabled farm on Kerala-Goa border when he was stuck by the awesomeness around him.

The devastating second wave of COVID-19 and warnings about a third wave on the horizon may made the Madhya Pradesh government keep oxygen, ventilators and beds ready, but is any attention being paid to the biggest gaping hole that the state’s health system may be left staring at – the lack of doctors and other health personnel?

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala High Court’s verdict which quashed the 80:20 ratio in granting scholarship to minorities has put the Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government in a tight spot.

Unable to take Mamata Banerjee head on, Narendra Modi is resorting to tactics of attacking her from behind. This is certainly not the characteristic of a warrior, as fighter as Modi is being projected by his supporters and party colleagues.